Course Description

This 5-day summer workshop provides high school teachers with the background and tools to go beyond the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology (DNA -> RNA -> Protein) in their teaching and engage their students in meaningful discussions of genomic science and its implications for personalized health care.

We will begin with an overview of the flow of genetic information, using recently developed instructional materials that will allow your students to model the processes of DNA replication, transcription and translation. These same materials will be used to explore the related process of DNA sequencing and the polymerase chain reaction. These foundational topics will then be enriched with a series of “genomic stories” in which our recently acquired ability to sequence the human genome has led to the molecular diagnosis and treatment of human diseases.

Teachers accepted into this program will:

Equip their classrooms with a collection of innovative instructional tools including physical 3D representations of proteins, the popular Flow of Genetic Information Kit, personalized medicine story modules, and cellular landscape paintings by David Goodsell.

Gain access to unique online resources that will allow their students to explore the biomolecular world.
Receive explicit training in the use of the program's instructional materials to connect the central elements of each molecular story to the basic concepts of genomics, chemistry and biology that are taught at the high school level.

Explore the rapidly advancing field of genome sequencing and personalized medicine and understand the ethical dilemmas involved.

Participate in a professional development program in which they will use the program's instructional tools in their classrooms, measure the impact of the materials on their students' learning, and share their experiences with colleagues.

Engage in a learning community of educators attending the Genes, Genomes, and Personalized Medicine summer workshop. Previous participants are encouraged to return for a second year to revisit the molecular stories and to share their strategies for using the program's instructional tools in their classrooms and their assessments for measuring the impact of the materials on their students' learning.

Models, Stipends, Travel, Accommodations, Credits

This project is funded by a grant from the NIH SEPA program. This grant provides funds for:

Physical models of molecular structures and other instructional materials for use in the classroom.

A teacher stipend of $600 over the two year participation in the project.

Reimbursement for travel (up to $350) and accommodations on campus in the Milwaukee School of Engineering dorms.

5 tuition-free Professional Educator Credits from MSOE. (Professional Educator Credits are not intended to meet requirements for an advanced degree. They simply document participation in a rigorous professional development activity.)

Most importantly - a lifetime membership in a community of professional educators who share a passion for introducing their students to the amazing molecular world.

A Community of Professional Educators

Teachers in this program will be encouraged to become active participants in a professional community of educators - committed to documenting the impact of their classroom innovations on student learning, and to sharing the results of that education research with others.

Course materials will be explicitly related to current Next Gen Science Standards, with a special emphasis on modeling - both as an authentic practice of science and as an important facilitator of student learning.

What teachers are saying about Genes, Genomes and Personalized Medicine. . .

This has completely changed how I am going to teach.

It’s pretty revolutionary, what they do here.

In small ways — maybe not even in ways they are aware of — they are modeling what great teaching looks like.

I was really stimulated with "this is not the future, this is now!"

The kits and models and things — they couldn’t be more perfect!

My favorite thing is that they respect your ideas. It is not "here is this amazing thing now go use it" . . . [but rather] "Tell us how to make it better."

When I saw the flow of genetics kit, I was so excited I was shaking.

All of this is related back to next generation science standards. . . they really did pull it all together.

It is so invigorating to come here, this is probably in the top professional development I’ve done.

Seeping in the biology this week will change my teaching.

This is going to radically change how we teach science from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

You can’t attend this and not come out a better teacher.

The Teachers FIRST program is supported by the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP) of the National Institutes of Health through Grant Number 1R25OD010505. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.